SEC Seeks Stakeholders’ Collaboration On Capital Market Development

The director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria, Dr. Emomotimi Agama, has called for stakeholders collaboration in the nation’s financial system in its current regulatory drives aimed at fully exploring the potential of the investment space for sustainable development of the country.
The SEC Boss, who made the appeal in his keynote address delivered at the Emerging Africa Capital Limited Investor Summit & Awards event with the theme ‘Deploying and Mobilizing Capital and Investment Strategies in a Shifting Global Economy’, noted that recent reforms initiated by the commission to transform the capital market were achieving desired results.

He stressed that a collective approach in pushing them would help in positioning Nigeria as a leading investment landscape in the global space.
Agama highlighted the implications of the current macroeconomic uncertainties in the global economic order for all economies globally, pointing out that while some countries remained the choice of many investors now due to quick returns opportunities, in the long run countries like Nigeria would offer longer benefits in view of their huge but yet to be fully explored opportunities.

According to him, Nigeria’s capital market has demonstrated considerable resilience in the face of the headwinds as the regulatory reforms, including the introduction of electronic offerings, the deepening of the bond market, the expansion of alternative investment platforms, and the SEC’s engagement with sustainable finance principles have begun to bear fruit in attracting renewed investor interest, indicative of a market in active evolution.
Despite the feats, SEC DG admitted that the full potential of what the capital market can do for Nigeria’s development had not yet been fully unlocked as the market capitalization, relative to GDP, remained below the benchmarks of Nigeria’s peer economies, while retail investor participation is still too thin and derivatives market is at its nascent stage.

To translate the potential to real gains for investors and the nation’s economy, Agama advocated collective responsibility since the capital market cannot be single-handedly built by regulators, exchanges or by investors alone, pointing out that its strength lies in stakeholders playing their roles with integrity, competence, and long-term orientation.
He advised domestic corporate issuers to embrace the capital market as their primary pathway to growth financing by improving governance, sharpening disclosure, and building the investor relations capabilities that attract institutional capital.

He appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Debt Management Office(DMO), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the Pension Commission (PenCom), and other relevant agencies to continue to deepen inter-agency collaboration, harmonize the policies, and present a unified, investor-friendly face to the world as the sophistication of the nation’s capital market depended on the coherence of their regulatory frameworks.